Piper: On Grace in Marriage (and Relationships)

Grace Bent Outward:

Then, having shown us the basis of God’s forgiveness in the cross, Paul says in Colossians 3:13b,

“As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”

In other words, take the grace and forgiveness and justification that you have received vertically through the death of Christ and bend it out horizontally to others. Specifically, husbands to wives and wives to husbands.

Why the emphasis on forgiving and forbearing rather than, say, an emphasis on romance and enjoying each other?

1. Because there is going to be conflict based on sin, we need to forgive sin and forbear strangeness, and sometimes you won’t even agree on which is which;

2. Because the hard, rugged work of forgiving and forbearing is what makes it possible for affections to flourish when they seem to have died;

3. Because God gets glory when two very different and very imperfect people forge a life of faithfulness in the furnace of affliction by relying on Christ.

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